I think the most important aspect of why they are starting this now is so that they don't have to retrain people in the tools they use because they had to let people go. This would make the development take much longer and cost more because of that.

Would you rather kickstart Torment 2 now before Wasteland 2 comes out or later after Wasteland 2 comes out and wait for a much longer time then you would have. (also it would either cost more or have less content then it would have)